Titletown Five

A bay son of multiple Grade 1 winner and 2010 champion 2-year-old male Uncle Mo, Nyquist kept his perfect record intact by racing near the lead before opening daylight in the stretch and holding off Exaggerator to win the 142nd Kentucky Derby May 7.

The Derby was the eighth win in as many starts for Nyquist, who became the first undefeated horse to capture the first jewel of the Triple Crown with as many victories since Majestic Prince in 1969.

Nyquist was perfect in five starts as a juvenile, earning more than $1.6 million in purses and culiminating with an Eclipse Award as the 2-year-old male champion of 2015. He debuted with a head victory going five furlongs at Santa Anita before a 5 ¼-length score in the Best Pal (G2) in just his second start.

From there he reeled off three consecutive Grade 1 victories over arch-rival Swipe in the Del Mar Futurity, FrontRunner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the latter by a half-length following a wide trip in his first try outside of California.

Given a winter break, Nyquist returned to hold off Kentucky Derby rival Exaggerator by 1 ½ lengths in the seven-furlong San Vicente (G2) Feb. 15. In one of the most hyped Derby prep races in recent memory, he went gate-to-wire to beat previously undefeated Mohaymen in the April 2 Florida Derby.

Jockey

Mario Gutierrez

When Troy Taylor, a top trainer at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia took a string of horses to southern California over the winter of 2011-12, he offered Mario Gutierrez the job as his first-call rider.

The move proved fortuitous for the native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, who earned the nickname “Marvelous Mario” on the Canadian racing circuit, where he led the Hastings standings twice, won 47 stakes and was the regular rider for 2007 2-year-old filly champion Dancing Allstar during his six-year stay.

Discovered as an apprentice in Mexico and brought to Canada by trainer Terry Jordan, Gutierrez won the 2012 Robert B. Lewis aboard I’ll Have Another in his first ride for trainer Doug O’Neill, and subsequently rode him to wins in the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

I’ll Have Another is the lone Preakness mount for Gutierrez, who has been aboard for each of Nyquist’s seven victories to open his career including the Del Mar Futurity, FrontRunner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 2015 and 2016 Florida Derby, all Grade 1 races.

Gutierrez, 29, moved to Canada as an apprentice in 2006, and was champion jockey in 2007 and 2008 before finishing second in an injury-riddled 2009 season. He was the regular rider for 2007 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Dancing Allstar. He rode briefly at Golden Gate, Portland Meadows and Turf Paradise and was considering a move back to Canada before getting the mount on I’ll Have Another.

Owner

J. Paul Reddam

A 59-year-old native of Ontario, Canada, Reddam moved to Calilfornia in 1979 to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California and remained in the states, working as a professor of philosophy at California State University, Los Angeles.

Reddam owned standardbreds during his teaching career, having cultivated an interest in horses back in high school, when he visited a friend who worked as groom at Windsor Raceway. He eventually delved into the thoroughbred game in 1998 by claiming the horse Ocean Warrior.

In 1995, Reddam founded the mortgage company Ditech, which he sold to General Motors four years later before founding high-risk lending agency CashCall based in Irvine, Cal.

Before his victores in the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with I’ll Have Another, Reddam’s biggest wins came with Wilko in the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Red Rocks in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf. He also campained Grade 1 winner Square Eddie, as well as stakes winners Elloluv, Sharp Lisa, Cash Included, Swept Overboard and Mistical Plan.

A die-hard fan of the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, Reddam’s Preakness horse is named for Swedish-born right wing Gustav Nyquist.

Trainer

Doug O'Neill

A successful trainer on the southern California circuit for years, O’Neill won with his first Preakness starter, Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another, in 2012. He also finished fifth with Goldencents in 2013.

O’Neill credits his brother and top assistant, Dennis, with getting him into the training game. He went directly from high school to the track, working for Jude Feld, Hector Palma and Doug Peterson before opening his own stable in 1994 at the age of 26.

Born in Dearborn, Mich., O’Neill is perhaps best known for his work with the gelding Lava Man, who he claimed in 2004 for $50,000 and went on to win nearly $5.3 million in purses, including Grade 1 races on turf, dirt and synthetics. Retired in 2010, Lava Man is now a stable pony for O’Neill, and accompanied I’ll Have Another at the Derby and Preakness.

O’Neill has won six Breeders’ Cup races: the 2005 Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy, the 2006 Sprint with Thor’s Echo, the inaugural Filly & Mare Sprint with Maryfield in 2007, the 2013 Dirt Mile with Goldencents, the 2015 Marathon with Bailoutbobby and 2015 Juvenile with Nyquist. All but Goldencents and Bailoutbobby earned Eclipse Award championships in their respective divisions.

On the day Nyquist won the Del Mar Futurity in California, O’Neill also captured the Hopeful (G1) at Saratoga with Ralis, making him the first trainer to win both races in the same year.

Breeder

Summerhill Farm

Irish pinhooker and breeder Tim Hyde Jr. has owned Summerhill Farm for the past 12 years in association with his father’s Camas Park Stud based in Cashel, County Tipperary, in southern Ireland. His father pinhooked such European standouts as Soviet Star and Indian Skimmer, and bred others like Alexandrova, Al Bahathri and Dancing Rain.

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, Hyde was an amateur steeplechase jockey who came to the U.S. with his father in the 1980s and 1990s to buy horses to bring back to Europe. He practiced for a few years at Camas Park Stud after studying at University of Dublin Veterinary School but went back to breeding and pinhooking.

Hyde purchased Nyquist’s dam, Seeking Gabrielle, for $45,000 at Keeneland’s 2011 horses of all ages sale. He entered her back in the 2012 November breeding stock sale while in foal to Uncle Mo, but she went unsold. Hyde then sent the mare to Ashford Stud in Kentucky where Nyquist was born.